Zimbabwe does not have to wait until the IMF comes

Zimbabwe is well resourced to rescue itself out of the current economic crunch without waiting upon the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it manages to institute robust economic and political reforms, a senior United Nations official has said.

Zimbabwe’s United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Senior Economic Advisor, Amarakoon Bandara said this whilst speaking at a Post-High Level Political Forum National Review Feedback in Harare on Friday.

Bandara expressed his optimism at Zimbabwe’s capabilities stemming from the country’s possession of such things as natural resources and a high human capita as compared to the rest of the continent.

“Zimbabwe can be the number one country on things like per capita income, quality of life and so on, if you can just put your things in order.

“You don’t need to go outside but require that you create a transparent system that will benefit Zimbabweans. Simply institute robust framework reforms that don’t need you waiting for the IMF to come in”, he said.

Bandara also lamented how the country was failing to tap into its diaspora population whose remittances are a paltry figure when contrasted with ability.

“Zimbabwe is top on human capita and the literacy rate is high. You educate people, send them out and they send you only $800 million.

“(In my country) we have about 2 million people in the diaspora but they send back around $10 billion and it has become the number one source of money for us”, he said.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning Dr Judith Kateera said government is working to rectify all the stumbling blocks.

“If we don’t harmonise our laws we won’t be able to attract investors from among those people in the diaspora.

“After harmonizing the laws we are going to develop an investment policy that will deal with both foreign and local investment. We are trying to create an environment which will help investment”, she said.

Kateera promised that by December 5 government would have created all the necessary measures to facilitate investment such as a one-stop shop for investment and special economic zones.